Greek Philosophy and Sufism in Mecdi’s Ottoman Turkish Gardens of Peonies

As the works of William Chittick and Sachiko Murata have taught countless students and scholars, the study of religious and philosophical texts from different language traditions opens up worldviews and perspectives on life that differ fundamentally from that of the contemporary world. Translations and studies of such texts not only transfer words and ideas from one language into another, but serve as conductors for different ways of thinking. In this respect, the study of Ottoman Turkish texts, particularly from the classical period of Ottoman intellectual life during the 9th/15th and 10th/16th centuries, is incisive. In its literary and intellectual production, the Ottoman Turkish textual tradition fuses many aspects of Islamic thought into a creative synthesis, and in the interlacing of Arabic and Persian into Turkish, it melds together multiple discourses and perspectives on perennial questions. The Ottoman biographical dictionary Gardens of peonies (Hadaiq al-shaqaiq) by the scholar and litterateur Mehmed Mecdi (d. 999/1591) is an example of this tradition.